MLGrado
500+ Head-Fier
must own. needed? no. Must have? Absolutely!! I was expecting a much higher price as well. Wow!
Welll to be fair it is a pretty incremental upgrademust own. needed? no. Must have? Absolutely!! I was expecting a much higher price as well. Wow!
Welll to be fair it is a pretty incremental upgrade
I'm really curious for iFi's Diablo product range, too!!
I'm curious why there are no separate power output (and other) specs for the balanced and SE outputs?
Do they both have the same power output levels and specs?
If so, does that mean that the 4.4mm balanced output is a 'convenience' output jack (to simply allow the use of a cable with a 4.4mm connector) that doesn't offer any increase in power output or reduction in noise levels compared to the SE output?
Thanks.
Finally!!!! Balanced 4.4mm
1+ for this question too
Never mind, I saw this link
https://ifi-audio.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/iFi-audio-xCAN-S_BAL-Tech-Note.pdf
This means it has dedicated grounds toward the same ground to each buffering stage per channel. IFi claimed that it still reduced crosstalk to as much as 50%
I can attest to this being the case, not with IFi products but rather Walkman 3.5 TRRS. It does actually improve the soundstage and separations (improved crosstalk)
Some people do actually prefer this over the true balanced with inverted phase design as IFI claimed. The biggest advantage of true balanced out is to cheat a little and doubled up the driving factor. Since the IDSD can already go as much as 4100mW, it is powerful enough without that Cheat. It is still Single Ended though
Let me understand this.. We lose 3.5mm line in and coaxial out (part of the idsd swiss army knife package), we gain pentacon and blue color, price is increased...? I really would have liked it to retain the same features - I don't have an additional amp lying around and would have liked to use this as a headamp with my turntable.
In any case I'm keen to understand the sound quality/tone difference vs original micro idsd black. Where is my extra money going
They didn't do that with the IDSD Signature - so I wouldn't even call the Signature a balanced amp.
and I'm wondering if that's what we're going to see with the Diablo?
I think you would be overpaying to just use this as an headphone amplifier for a turntable.
But I agree it is strange that ifi dropped the analog input here.
Of course if smaller form factor and battery-power matters most..
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In the Manual you call it Balanced. Do you mean S-Balanced?It's S-Balanced
I think you would be overpaying to just use this as an headphone amplifier for a turntable. Less portable, but zen can I think would be a better value. But I agree it is strange that ifi dropped the analog input here. You still have RCA out, and I'm not sure how many people were actually using SPDIF out from the Micro, so probably not a huge loss there.
I owned Cayin n6 mk2 (A01,T01) in parallel with micro idsd BL. Really good DAP. But know what, I would prefer the micro due to its absolute control over my 6BA IEM, plus the synergy in tonality . Yes, I have some questions to the treble quality but the rest was just perfect.I feel ifi has shot themselves in the foot a bit with the high pricing here. If you want portability and excellent sound quality - look at the Fiio m11 Pro or Sony ZX507
It is pseudo balanced basically. There is the benefit of better crosstalk, but there is no additional power.In the Manual you call it Balanced. Do you mean S-Balanced?
Just to clarify - all of your products are S-Balanced, right?
Why don't you call it like this in Manuals just to be more consistent in definitions?
P.S. Does that mean that I cannot get a full balanced circuit in case I connect any of your s-balanced DACs (Zen DAC via 4.4 mm output as an example) to a desktop fully balanced amplifier (Violectric HPA181/280)? The ground will not be separated, right? Thanks.
It is pseudo balanced basically. There is the benefit of better crosstalk, but there is no additional power.
There are no separate specs for SE/4.4mm. iFi also confirmed it above, it is "S-balanced"."but there is no additional power."
This unit giving you no additional power when using a balanced 4.4 mm pentaconn headphone cable, you sure about this?